WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO MAKE MORE INVESTMENT' AND COUNTY UPGRADE IN THE WESTERN TIBET?

On 25 January 2013, two major announcements were made by China’s official news media: the plan to invest over 3.5 billion Yuan to protect environment and creation of a new county in Nagchu Prefecture in the so called Tibet Autonomous Region (comprising western half of the historical Tibet).

China daily reported that according to the draft budget of 2013 submitted by the finance department of the so called Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), "the region plans to invest 3.5 billion Yuan (USD 563 million) in 2013 […] in environmental protection”. The report further stated that most of the investment (3.23 billion) will be used for “major forestation projects and for compensating and rewarding locals who protect grass and forests, and conserve wetlands, lakes and water resources”. Besides, “over 50 million Yuan will be allocated to support environment improvement projects and preserve resources”. The investment will also “support the building of an ecological safety screen on the plateau”, report said.

Tibetans Forcibly Removed to Make way for Mining Development

 

Chinese government in Lhasa forcefully removed Tibetan families from their ancestor homes in Lhundup (Ch: Lhunzhub) county of Lhasa municipality, in so called Tibetan Autonomous Region to make way for an extensive mining in the region.

Pile of ore deposits at the mining site in Lhundup County

Comeback of the Tibetan Beast?

A recent research suggests that the population of Wild Yaks called "drong" in Tibetan are increasing in some parts of the Tibetan Plateau.

According to the press release issued by Wildlife Conservation Society on January 16, 2012, around 1,000 wild yaks (འབྲོང)were counted by a team of U.S. and Chinese conservationists from the Wildlife Conservation Society and the University of Montana in a rugged northern area of the plateau known as Hoh Xil Nature Reserve, (Achen-Gangyal in Tibetan; ཨ་ཆེན་གངས་རྒྱལ).

"Wild yaks are icons for the remote,untamed, high-elevation roof of the world," researcher Joel Berger, wholed the yak-counting expedition, said in a statement. Joe Walston, WCS executive director of Asia programs stated, "For millennia, yaks have sustained human life in this part of Asia; it would be a cruel irony if their reward is extinction in the wild,"